Fiber-reinforced plastic components having a high carrying capacity, with fiber orientation and fiber positioning adapted to stresses, are increasingly used in greatly varying areas of technology. For example, such plastic components can be used in aircraft construction and result in a significant reduction of the weight of the aircraft therein. Such fiber-reinforced plastic components may be produced by laying pre-impregnated fiber strands. In this case, both carbon fibers (CRP—carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic) and also glass fibers (GRP—glass-fiber-reinforced plastic) can be employed to reinforce a plastic material used as the matrix.
During the production of components from thermoplastic fiber-plastic composites, fiber-reinforced plastic tapes are frequently used, which are impregnated and consolidated in a separate, upstream process. These plastic tapes are heated directly before being laid or pressed against a mold and then adapted in the laying point to the geometry of the component or the mold with the aid of a pressing-on device, such as a pressing-on roller, and consolidated. The geometry of the component can be predefined by a plane or curved surface of the mold on which it is laid. Such a method, which can be automated, is referred to as “tape laying” or in English as “tape/tow placement” or “fiber placement”, and can be used both for the complete construction and also for the local reinforcement of components.
One possible problem when laying fiber-reinforced thermoplastic materials, for example, in the form of fiber-reinforced plastic tapes, can be that the geometry of a component which is established by a mold, such as a positive mold or a negative mold, can be restricted in that uniform pressing and/or laying of the plastic tapes can be made more difficult by a rigid pressing-on roller and in particular a desired fiber orientation within curved components can only be implemented with difficulty. Convex and concave component curvatures can result in uneven or also sometimes impossible pressing of the impregnated plastic tape onto the mold, to which consolidation deficits can be connected.
Therefore, a requirement can exist for a pressing-on device for pressing on fiber-reinforced plastic materials, which allows improved pressing of the plastic materials against a mold during a laying procedure. In particular, a requirement can exist for a pressing-on device which allows preferably simultaneous laying of multiple tapes of fiber-reinforced plastic materials in a plurality of laying directions in a manner adapted to a plurality of molds, and which further withstands operating conditions, for example, an elevated temperature, occurring during the laying of fiber-reinforced thermoplastic materials in the long term. Furthermore, a requirement can also exist for a fiber arranging device and a method for arranging a fiber-reinforced thermoplastic material on a mold employing such a pressing-on device.